So tonight I went to a Richardson event. As an avid Edwards support, this kind of felt like cheating on my husband, but I made myself a promise that I would attend as many candidate events this year as a could.
What were my impressions? Jump down!
Some first impressions.....I must be a softy because if these guys look at me and shake my hand, I'm totally taken in. Seriously, though, he does come accross as very warm. Also much thinner than he appears on TV, not that it matters (and god help me if I am on TV ever!)
The event was held in a Des Moines suburb that is fairly Republican. There were maybe 150-200 people there. A pretty great crowd on such a stormy night here.
Bill told a lot of self-deprecating jokes and kind of reminded my of that uncle in your family that thinks he is pretty funny, but is kind of not :) But, in its own way, that is appealing.
He really pushed all of his expierence. If he said he was in charge of a state 1 time, he said it 10 times. But that really is a good strategy.
He answered questions about Iraq, healthcare, immigration, gun control and a few other issues. I mostly agreed with him except with a few minor quibbles on the immigration (I think that the fine of $9000 is way too much since most of these people probably make under 30,000.....if we stick with the 9000, we will throw everyone out). And he doesn't think taxes will need to go up for anyone for healthcare and that's kind of silly. And he mentioned that the Democrats worry more about the poor than the middle class (a shot at Edwards, I thought). But when he referred to the 'big guns' of the campaign he was only referring to Hillary and Obama. But overall, he has some nice ideas.
I was curious about the crowd. Several people asked questions that really reminded me of things Edwards has said. I'd be curious to know if it was Edwards people that were just there to listen and learn (like me) or if there are some people that were for Edwards but are shopping around or if it was people that are leaning Edwards. Or maybe I just think too much about John Edwards!
He is kind of a dry speaker. Very earnest, but not all that compelling. This obviously isn't a huge problem, just an observation. And the crowd wasn't completely enthralled, but seemed to like some of his thoughts. And everyone seemed to like those ads he is running here. Those were a great move for him.
Anyway, that's just a few of my observations. It was fun to see another candidate in a pretty small setting. He definately didn't swing me at all away from my candidate, but I'm glad I went even just to figure out that.